The High Court orders that Solang vending zone notifications be made
The Principal Secretary of Town and Country Planning has been instructed by the HP High Court to make sure that the Solang Special Area (Manali) vending and non-vending zones are notified.
After reviewing the response submitted by the Kullu administration, a Division Bench made up of Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua issued this order. It stated that on January 15, the chairman of the Solang/Rohtang Special Area Development Authority, Kullu, wrote a letter to the Principal Secretary of Town and Country Planning, asking that the latter inform the vending and non-vending zones at Solang Special Area.
“Although a period of one and a half months has elapsed, no action has been taken by the said Principal Secretary till date,” the court noted while instructing the Principal Secretary. It scheduled a follow-up hearing for May 22 and instructed the official to send out the notice well in advance of the next scheduled date.
During the prior hearing, the court had instructed the SDM, Manali, to promptly notify the vending and non-vending zones in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Street Vending Act, 2014, and to move forward with completing the super structures that are echo-friendly for the proposed vends.
On July 3, 2022, The Tribune published a news article with the headline “Littering near Atal Tunnel threat to ecology,” which prompted the court to issue this injunction. The press said that there are mounds of trash on the roadside of the tunnel’s south entrance near Manali, indicating that visitor littering near the Atal Tunnel has gone unchecked. In addition to being unsightly, the debris is contaminating the environmentally sensitive area and, if left unchecked, might pose a health risk.
The state authorities were instructed to file their affidavits detailing the plan of action, including special drives to be conducted, along with dates to ensure that the garbage is cleared and indicating the legal provision under which fines are imposed for littering, as well as the amount of fines collected in the last year. The court took notice of this and treated the news item as a public interest litigation.
